Embodiments of the inventive concept described herein relate to technology for detecting or measuring microbes or bacteria through laser speckles from food.
Putrefaction of food is a process of decomposing protein into amine due to multiplication of microbes or bacteria. According to decomposition into amine, food emits a stench and generates a biotoxin. That is, the food is rotten. In the case of ingesting rotten food, an intaker could be poisoned by the rotten food. Therefore, measuring microbes or bacteria from food is very significant for food management and intakers' health.
There are several methods for measuring microbes or bacteria, such as microorganism culture, mass spectrometry, and nuclear magnetic resonance. For the microorganism culture, the mass spectrometry, and the nuclear magnetic resonance are advantageous to microscopic measurement of specific types of microbes or bacteria, but take a long time for preparing samples and require expensive, highly precise, and complicated apparatuses
There is besides a technique for measuring microbes or bacteria using an optical manner. For instance, optical measurements include Raman spectrometry and multispectral imaging, but require complicated optical systems, specialized knowledge and laboratory-level facilities operating the complicated optical systems, and a long time for measurement, thus difficult to be employed in food factories or general homes.
Although food is distributed as a matter of course after quality inspection, it is not easily feasible to measure the degree of freshness of food, which is on distribution or in storage, after a shelf life. Moreover, as microbes or bacteria easily multiply even under low temperature (e.g., 4° C.) as well as under room temperature, it is necessary for general persons to easily measure microbes or bacteria from food, which is even in storage, in homes or markets.
Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2015-0050265 discloses the technique of irradiating ultraviolet rays into microbes and receiving a fluorescent spectrum of amino acid constituting protein of the microbes.